Obesity epidemic costs UK £5bn a year

Doctors in Britain have demanded for help to deal with the obesity crisis costing £5 billion a year.

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The UK doctors have called for a team of specialists to help the country deal with the soaring obesity crisis costing the country£5 billion a year, an issue the government has failed to tackle.
A report by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) says not enough is being done to tackle the obesity epidemic in the UK, which is costing £5 billion each year. This figure is expected to rise alongside the number of obese Britons.
Academic vice-president of the RCP Professor John Wass said, "Britain is getting bigger and whilst we try to prevent the increase in obesity, we must also prepare the NHS [National Health Service] for the influx of patients presenting with severe complex obesity."
It is estimated that 700,000 current NHS employees are obese, but only 15 percent are seen or assessed.
Professor Lindsey Davies, president of the UK’s Faculty of Public Health, said “Obesity is not only caused by how much we each eat or drink: if tackling it were as simple as telling people to eat less and move more, we would have solved it by now.”
Meanwhile, the coalition government continues to ignore the obesity epidemic, which is heavily costing UK taxpayers. Instead, the Con-Dems’ funding cuts caused a 60 percent decline in school sports across Britain, according to research compiled by Labour in July 2012.
Moreover, about a quarter of UK adults are vastly overweight and it is estimated that the majority of Britain’s population will be obese by 2050.
BGH/MOL/HE